C.J. Hamilton, assistant operations manager for the

C.J. Hamilton, assistant operations manager for the Huntington District's Kanawha Area Office, shows where the Summersville Lake normal winter pool level of 1575 feet above mean sea level would appear on a gauge. Something was preventing an intake gate from sealing off properly. A tunnel, part of the dam's system, could not be dewatered thus engineers could not examine it. Although these issues did not impact the operation of the dam in the near term, they had to be addressed for long-term safety. After coming up with some hypotheses and mulling over a few courses of action, engineers determined the Summersville Lake had to be lowered 55 feet below the normal winter pool level in order to allow workers to determine what was wrong and fix it.